Are You Really My Daughter?

‘Celia. I’m not as noble as you think I am.’

But the completion of the story called life.

Its ending was solely connected to death.

Humans, who always long for endings at happy moments, can only live desperately hoping for that happiness to continue for a long time.

Even knowing that what they grasp at the end is not eternal, they wish for it to remain forever.

‘I’ve committed more sins than you think.’

‘So have I.’

‘I drove many people to their deaths with my greed. While turning a blind eye to the stories of those victims.’

‘So have I.’

I cut down many with these hands.

Among them were noble ones, and innocent ones.

There were those who whispered love to me.

I turned a blind eye to all their deaths.

Because I wanted to put an end to this story and live for my own happiness now.

‘So stay with me.’

‘I can’t do that.’

‘Then, let’s go together. I’ll go with you too…’

‘I’m leaving for atonement.’

I could understand.

Even though I no longer feel anything for humans, I was once human.

If you’re human, you have to pay the price for the sins you’ve committed…

I could understand with my head that stepping into the unfinished battlefield for such atonement.

‘Celia. Can you truly be with someone like me?’

But with my heart.

‘I can be with you.’

‘Truly?’

Because I couldn’t empathize with that feeling.

‘…’

‘…Yes, that’s why I can’t take you with me.’

Because for me, the people of the world were perpetrators, bystanders, and nobodies.

Although I could fight in front of him who sacrifices for such people, I couldn’t fight sincerely for him.

If I killed my heart, it might be different, but that would ultimately just be acting as a tool.

The moment I set out to the battlefield following him, I wouldn’t be able to whisper love purely.

‘Because I love you.’

That’s why I couldn’t follow him.

‘You’re more precious to me than anything in this world, and I want you to be happy.’

At his sweet whisper towards me.

In the sorrowful resonance felt from him, I felt that so many things were deeply ingrained.

‘To enjoy that purely, you’d have to let go of what’s in your heart.’

What’s commonly called lingering attachment.

Unlike me who doesn’t want to cling to the past, he.

Because he was still a ‘human’ who couldn’t help but be bound to the past…

‘…We can end it anytime if you want to end it.’

‘That shouldn’t be.’

‘Do you think the same as the emperor?’

‘Yes, because this has already become a fight inherited by those who came after.’

Born in a country, inheriting a family line, swearing loyalty to a monarch.

Just by living on the foundation built by such people, a person inherits many things from the past.

Even if it’s an unwanted birth, because one must take responsibility, even if the start was pushed upon them, at some point it inevitably becomes sincere.

An era where it no longer matters who became the perpetrator.

So we must fight.

Humans inherit the fight started by humans.

Because it must be ended by human hands.

‘It will end someday, but not now. The people of this continent all need time to realize.’

How much more sacrifice will occur in that process.

Despite foreseeing such a future, he chose that path, so he’s trying to step onto the battlefield again not for a great cause, but for atonement.

There was no place for me to intervene in such a journey.

For me who had become unable to love anyone except him.

‘I’m sorry.’

So I apologized.

‘I’m sorry. For not being able to be with you…’

‘That’s what I should say. I’m sorry for not being able to be with you because of my selfishness.’

So I accepted his apology.

Because we love each other, we prepared to commit sins against each other.

And because of that…

‘Our daughter. I’ll leave her to you.’

As much as I couldn’t love him.

I wanted to love the child I had with him.

---

Seine.

My daughter, our child.

Why do you feel so lovable even though you’re not that person?

It’s probably because we know we’re finite beings.

Me, and Sion too…

Despite the battlefield we’ve been through, we too will face the ending that will come to this happy story someday.

But this child will remain.

The traces this child leaves while living will continue, and that will be proof itself that we loved.

Although I’ve become unable to love anyone except him, that’s why this child tied to him felt more precious than anything.

So Seine.

Please don’t become like us.

Even if you turn your back on this harsh and sadistic world, please…

‘You’re a duke!’

But where did it go wrong?

From the resentment returned to words filled with such feelings, I felt that something had gone wrong.

Is it just because she’s smarter than her peers?

No, that’s not it.

This child should know nothing.

Because I’ve been watching all along, because I’ve been by her side all along.

Nowhere I saw was there any way for this child to find out what I didn’t want her to know.

‘Everything you’re enjoying comes from the family. It’s what the people who built this country passed down to you. You’ve enjoyed all those rewards and now you’re trying to avoid the responsibility?’

‘…Seine.’

‘And you call yourself a leader of this land? You call yourself a duke supporting this empire!’

She was just a 5-year-old child.

How could such a child know about patriotism, loyalty, and the weight of a family line?

‘Seine. You…’

That day, I returned to my room alone and reflected on my life while looking in the mirror.

Should I tell her?

My life. That life…

Is it okay to tell that child now, instead of waiting for her to realize it on her own?

No, that itself might harm that child.

I can be weakest to my husband, but I can’t expect such understanding from this child. Because I didn’t want to transfer my burdens to this child.

But before that, one thing.

There was one thing I wanted to ask that child.

‘What exactly is inside you?’

And I asked myself.

That child.

If what exists inside that child is not a child, does that mean she’s not my daughter?

‘…Are you really my daughter?’

Perhaps 10 seconds. Or even shorter than that.

The time devoted to deliberation wasn’t very long.

The reason I fell in love with Sion was because he saved me.

The reason he fell in love with me was because I was the first patient he saved.

That trivial beginning led to a tight bond only after our backs touched.

Even if the start is trivial, the flower that blooms from it is so precious.

So it’s okay. We’ve already met.

No matter what that child knows, no matter what she’s seen, it doesn’t change the fact that she’s my daughter.

‘Seine, do you want to be with daddy?’

But if you know so much, you probably won’t try to learn anything from me anymore.

Even so, if you soon leave my side and go out into the world.

You’ll face the harshness, the cruelty that he and I experienced…

‘Then.’

So with action rather than words.

Let me teach you what I, who has only swung a sword all my life, can do.

‘Then try to defeat mom.’

Even if that medium becomes hatred towards me.

Rather than me who hated the world, you’ll be able to live more like a human.

‘If you defeat mom, you can do everything you want.’

But at least you.

If you hold onto hatred for me (a monster), you won’t become a being like me.

---

“…Cough.”

How much time had passed since the fight?

Countless layers visible from the collapsing ceiling.

Celia, who had been staring at the cross-section of the maze forming multiple layers, compared the flow felt from countless passages and spaces with her last memory.

‘About 10 seconds, is it?’

10 seconds.

Judging by the falling debris collapsed from the impact, about that much time must have passed.

Enough time to annihilate an army.

The fact that she was left alone despite losing consciousness during that time means the opponent must have been pushed back that much as well.

“It’s tough, although I was prepared to some extent…”

After raising her trembling legs, she soon stared at what was in front of her.

The giant of filth that had absorbed all the surrounding filth from the moment it descended, crushing and crushing, growing with the momentum to rise to the ground.

But only the upper body remains.

Part of the separated body has returned to filth again, and only the remaining upper body was barely raising its body.

-Bertayu…

The moment the huge mouth of that monstrosity opened.

-Bertayu, how dare youuuuu!!!!!!

As countless mouths existing inside it opened all at once, a hideous sound began to echo throughout the space.

It was the cry of spirits.

The phenomenon of the screams of believers forming that body sublimating into individual will felt dizzying, as if life was being sucked out just by hearing it.

“…One arm.”

Just as she was about to rush at the monster again, she suddenly realized that the sword that should have been in her left hand was gone.

For some reason, she couldn’t feel any sensation in her hand.

Looking down, she saw the torn sleeve. And the grotesquely twisted bones of her arm.

Even if she tried to move it forcibly, only the nerves throbbed.

“One arm for the lower body of a god.”

It’s a cheap price for a sacrifice.

Celia chuckled as she kicked away a pile of debris to pull out her sword.

Although one of the arms she should grip with doesn’t move, there was no hesitation.

At the moment when a sense of alertness she had never felt since being tied to him rose.

Because she felt the hatred she had long forgotten sublimating into another emotion over a long time.

-Kyaaaaaaak!!!

The moment her feet moved again, the remaining filth on the floor began to take shape and rush towards her.

People. Ugly demons that merely imitated that form, trying to bite her flesh.

-Slash!

Mercilessly cutting through the body of that monster.

Three hands stretching out to follow were split by the second sword strike.

-Crack!

Eventually, dozens of corpses existing behind became flesh dozens of times larger and scattered into pieces.

-Kill that one right now!!!!!

Even while advancing through that, the pursuit continued.

Pursuers running madly from the darkness. It’s not difficult to shake off all those pursuits, but if she swings her sword recklessly, she won’t be able to reach the point of cutting out the opponent’s windpipe.

Even at this moment, she could feel her stamina being depleted.

‘I’m out of breath.’

With one arm damaged, the body’s balance was disrupted, and as she filled that gap with stamina, she felt an itching inside her throat.

Breathing is important for concentration.

Having a disability in that means there will be disabilities in both body movement and mana operation.

Nevertheless, it’s natural to become like this after forcing herself to run.

‘If the opponent were human, it would be enough to reduce the numbers, but…’

-Crunch.

The moment the debris she had cut down gathered again and flashed red eyes.

As soon as all of that was cut by the swing of the sword, hundreds of armies that followed began to engulf her body.

-Ber, tayu…

But this much won’t kill her.

The flesh of that woman who split the lower body that was barely constructed won’t turn to dust with just this much.

-How dare you, a mere retainer, not knowing your place…!!

Nero Astora, preparing to swing his hand while moving his fallen body.

As the tyrant’s hand strike pounded the ground, shaking the space, a slash rising from below split the arm in half, opening a path.

“…I’m sorry, but I’m not daddy.”

Even the monsters that rushed through that gap were slaughtered, but the attack ended there.

Unable to continue the combo due to overlooking the absence of one arm, she leaped towards the wall to avoid the torrent of flesh rushing in like snakes.

“In the first place, daddy who was your retainer was killed by you, wasn’t he?”

At the end, she who barely found her footing on one level of the sewer looked down at the tyrant who was isolated at the scene, barely keeping his body upright.

The ugly monster longing for nostalgia for the old era, regenerating all the parts she had cut down.

-Yes, you were that successor.

It will soon rebuild after being knocked down once. If it continues for a long time, the winner will be himself.

-Then, is the reason you’re rushing at me now to take revenge or something?

The following question had such composure.

Confidence that what she’s shown so far can’t interfere with his path.

The conviction that eventually this disaster called himself will spread throughout the world starting from this land.

“…Revenge?”

But even to such an absurd calamity, she only responded with a snort.

“I didn’t care about such things from the beginning.”

Memories are memories.

Even if it becomes nostalgia, it has no effect on her present self.

Unlike her husband who had lingering attachments, for her who didn’t even have such attachments, what mattered was always only the living, breathing present.

“Because I love.”

Compassion for the world, hatred…

Because that heart is so intense that it makes her forget all the emotions she should have as a human, she drew her sword here.

Even if she can’t be with the two people trying to live in an era where humans, not gods, save humans.

And where humans end everything inherited from humans by human hands.

“To the extent that I don’t care what you said now, because I love those two.”

Dealing with the ghost of the old era trying to encroach on the world those two will live in.

Even a monster like herself should be able to do it sufficiently.